DESCRIPTION: (Adapted from the application) This training program in the Neurobiology of Aging is designed to provide high quality research training for select pre-and postdoctoral students to prepare them for successful independent careers on the basic mechanisms of brain aging. The program, begun in 1983, is designed to provide multidiciplinary training to better understand the basic neural events underlying successful aging, its maintenance and plasticity, and the key events that compromise learning and memory and higher cognitive function. To accomplish this the applicants have assembled a group of senior and junior investigators recognized for their expertise in key areas of research and technology, who have a history and continued motivation to collaborate, and are dedicated to high quality training in the field. Since the last renewal the training program has increased their number of preceptors and research foci available to students. The program includes preceptors from departments in the Schools of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Engineering and Computer Sciences and Medicine in order to reflect advances in new evolving areas and to train the next generation of researchers. The primary training is one on one mentoring of trainees. The training program enhances this by providing a forum for building the essential knowledge base through the graduate brain aging track, formal courses, the brain aging seminar series, and specialized programs tailored for unusual students and projects. The program also stimulates productive, innovative research and unique research opportunities for trainees through collaborative research among the preceptors. The program has a solid track record of producing quality scientists who enter academia or apply their training and knowledge in industry to address a challenging and serious health problem for the nation and our growing senior population.